With chance to clinch division, Steelers fall flat in Cleveland yet again

Brian Batko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Dec 28, 2025

Published in Football

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CLEVELAND — All the Steelers had to do to give themselves a makeshift bye going into the playoffs was take care of business against a three-win Cleveland Browns team on a four-game losing streak with a rookie quarterback in his fifth NFL start.

Instead, they’ll have to beat the Baltimore Ravens with their season on the line. If they can’t win next Sunday at Acrisure Stadium, the Steelers will get a much longer break than one week.

Myles Garrett didn’t get to eclipse T.J. Watt (and Michael Strahan) for the NFL’s all-time single-season sack record, but the Browns eclipsed the Steelers, 13-6, at Huntington Bank Field. That’s their fourth consecutive win against the Steelers in Cleveland, which has become a house of horrors and pathetic offensive performances for them since Ben Roethlisberger walked out of this building victorious one last time in 2021.

The Steelers (9-7) now have lost to Jacoby Brissett, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, Jameis Winston and Shedeur Sanders in this skid by Lake Erie. But more significant to their current circumstance, they took the bus up north to Northeast Ohio and failed to clinch the AFC North.

While there will be ample time for a postmortem on this game, just start with Aaron Rodgers completing 17 of 31 passes for 110 yards until the last possession. Also until that last gasp, Pat Freiermuth led all receivers with 23 yards on one reception — which came on a free play because Rodgers had the good sense to catch the Browns (4-12) with 12 men on the field.

But are we sure they couldn’t have stopped the Steelers offense with 10? Devin Bush, of all people, forced a fumble on Jaylen Warren on the first snap of the game, which felt like a bad omen at the time. It was that and more on what could’ve been a triumphant day that turned into a miserable one that will lead to a week of tension in Pittsburgh and Baltimore alike.

It was over when: Rodgers misfired for Marquez Valdes-Scantling on 4th-and-7 with 21 seconds left, failing to finish a furious two-minute drill on which the passing game finally woke up — but they’d already hit the snooze button for two hours and 50 minutes.

Player of the game: Shedeur Sanders. We’ll take the prompt here very literally, as the Browns’ lightning rod of a fifth-round rookie was their best players at times — especially at the outset — and the Steelers’ best player down the stretch. He showed flashes, good and bad, from a couple gutsy throws over the middle to one of the most horrific interceptions you’ll see this season, lofting one up off his back foot that was easily brought down by Kyle Dugger. If this were purely a Browns honor, you’d have to give it to defensive end Alex Wright, who’s the Batman to Garrett’s Robin but did the heavy lifting with a sack and two tackles for loss.

Trending up: Joey Porter Jr. The Browns had early success through the air — when they weren’t targeting Porter. He continues a strong run of play in which he’s locking down whichever side of the field he’s on and making opposing offenses look elsewhere to attack. Porter also flashed some sure tackling in this one and even had a pressure on Sanders midway through the fourth quarter. The cherry on top is that he has only been penalized twice since Week 9, both in the same game (at Baltimore). His arrow is pointing in the right direction entering an offseason in which he’s due for a contract extension.

Trending down: Chris Boswell. It’s not so much that he missed a 54-yard field goal wide right in windy weather at a notoriously windy place to play, but Boswell has been a mere mortal the past couple of games now. He also missed from just 37 yards off the right upright last week in pristine dome conditions at Ford Field. There should still be plenty of belief in Boswell, but it’s fair to acknowledge he hasn’t been the automatic checkmark we’ve grown accustomed to the past two seasons.

Injury note: Tight end Darnell Washington broke his arm in loss, coach Mike Tomlin announced.

Up next: A winner-take-all for the division rematch with the Ravens — hot off a huge win at Green Bay — and while the day of the game and time has yet to be announced, you can rest assured it’ll serve as the NFL’s regular-season finale Sunday night at Acrisure Stadium.

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